LIFELINE FOR TIGERS Status and Conservation of the Kanha-Pench Corridor WWF-INDIA 172-B, Lodi Estate New Delhi – 110 003 India REPORT PREPARED BY Jyotirmay Jena, Jimmy Borah, Chittaranjan Dave and Joseph Vattakaven SURVEY TEAM MEMBERS Sunny Shah, Sanjay Thakur, Lalthanpuia, Bibek Yumnam, Kannadasan Narasimmarajan, Divya Ramesh, Kamal Thakur and Naveen Srivastav SUGGESTED CITATION Jena, J., Borah, J., Dave, C. and J. Vattakaven. 2011. Lifeline for Tigers: Status and Conservation of the Kanha-Pench Corridor, WWF-India, New Delhi, India. © JYOTIRMAY JENA / WWF INDIA JENA © JYOTIRMAY LIFELINE FOR TIGERS Status and Conservation of the Kanha-Pench Corridor i © JYOTIRMAY JENA / WWF INDIA CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v EXECUTIVE SUMMARY vii 1. THE SATPUDA MAIKAL LANDSCAPE: AN INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Geographical Location 2 1.2 Climate 2 1.3 Forests 3 1.4 People 3 1.5 Biodiversity 5 1.6 Tigers 6 2. ASSESSMENT OF TIGER, PREY AND HABITAT STATUS IN THE KANHA-PENCH CORRIDOR 7 2.1 Objectives 8 2.2 The Survey 9 2.2.1 Survey Design 9 2.2.2 Field protocol 10 2.3 Findings 10 2.3.1 Distribution of Tigers 10 2.3.2 Wild-prey and Livestock Distribution 12 2.3.3 Human Disturbance 14 3. CRITICAL HABITAT LINKS AND BLOCKS IN THE KANHA-PENCH CORRIDOR 15 3.1 Critical Linkages 15 3.1.1 Sarekha Ghat 15 3.1.2 Latgaon 15 3.1.3 Nainpur 16 3.1.4 Khatiya Mocha 16 3.2 Key Tiger Habitat Blocks 16 4. THREATS IN KANHA-PENCH CORRIDOR 19 4.1 Development Pressure 19 4.1.1 Recommendations 22 4.2 Human-animal confl ict 22 4.2.1 Cattle Killing by Large Predators 24 4.2.2 Recommendations 30 4.3 Resource Dependence of Local Communities 31 4.3.1 Recommendations 31 5. DISCUSSIONS & CONCLUSION 33 5.1 Conclusion 33 6. REFERENCES 35 iii © JYOTIRMAY JENA / WWF INDIA JENA © JYOTIRMAY iv Lifeline for Tigers: Status and Conservation of the Kanha-Pench Corridor ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We offer our sincere gratitude to the Principal Chief Conser- vator of Forest (PCCF), Madhya Pradesh Forest Department for enabling the fi eldwork involved in this study. We are also thankful to the Divisional Forest Offi cers (DFO’s) of Mandla, Balaghat and South Seoni Divisions for their immense help and support during the study. We are thankful to all the Range Offi cers of the ranges within our study area for their help during the fi eld study. Thanks are also due to the Forest Guards who accompanied us during the surveys in the fi eld. We are grateful to Dr. Y.V. Jhala and Mr. Qamar Qureshi from Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun for their valuable inputs and advice in designing the research meth- odology and data analysis. We are thankful to our team members who carried out the fi eld surveys along with us. Without their help, it would not have been possible to cover the huge study area within the timeline and resources. Sincere thanks to our Field Offi cers Kamal Thakur and Naveen Srivastav for their great help during the survey — from working in the fi eld to looking after our logistical arrangements to sometimes driving the vehicle for almost 12 hours a day. We would also like to thank Alam Gir Khan and Alok Srivastav of WWF-India’s Mandla offi ce for their support. We extend our thanks to Anirudh, Satyaranjan and Ra- jkishore from WII for sharing their views and comments. Thanks also to Abhishek Harihar for his comments and sug- gestions on the report. We also acknowledge Mr. Ravi Singh, SG-&-CEO, WWF- India, Dr. Sejal Worah, Dr. Diwakar Sharma, Dr. Dipankar Ghose and Dr. Shivaji Chauhan for their encouragement and support for this work. The team is thankful to Dr. Rashid H. Raza for his valuable comments, inputs and suggestions while fi nalising the report. v © JYOTIRMAY JENA / WWF INDIA JENA © JYOTIRMAY vi Lifeline for Tigers: Status and Conservation of the Kanha-Pench Corridor The team of WWF-India’s Satpuda Mai- EXECUTIVE kal Landscape Programme conducted an extensive survey on tigers, co-predators SUMMARY and prey in the Kanha-Pench corridor. This corridor, by connecting the Kanha and Pench Tiger Reserves, sustains one of the most important meta- population of tigers in central India. The Kanha-Pench complex harbours around 120 tigers along with several important fl oral and faunal assemblages. The landscape also supports diverse land use, forest protection regimes and traditional forest dwelling tribal communities. The conservation signifi cance and potential for long term viability of the tiger population in this landscape has been recognized by national agencies such as the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and by various independent conservation biologists. Realizing the conservation signifi cance of the landscape and to support the manage- ment efforts by state forest departments, it seemed imperative to assess the vast man- aged forest between Kanha and Pench Tiger Reserves for wildlife usage and occupancy. One of the key objectives was to identify the important forest blocks, which serve as a refuge to dispersing wildlife across the corridor. The fi eld survey was carried out in the late summer of 2010 i.e. in May and June as per the framework suggested in the NTCA-WII guidelines. The survey covered approximately 1700km2 of managed forests under fi ve forest divisions in Mandla, Seoni and Balaghat districts of Madhya Pradesh. To systematically sample the forest area between Kanha and Pench, a 10x10km size grid was superimposed over the map of forest cover and each grid cell (100km2) was consid- ered as a sampling unit. Out of 22 such grid cells, 17 were intensively searched during 456 man-days as they formed the crucial corridor connectivity between the two tiger reserves. This area encompassed a total of 82 forest beats, out of which 79 were inten- sively searched for large carnivore and herbivore signs and indirect evidence. Simul- taneously, human presence and disturbance was also assessed in each of these forest beats. The team walked on wildlife trails gathering evidence of wildlife occurrence, their habitat use and anthropogenic pressures. Out of the 79 forest beats covered, tigers were found in 21 beats, leopards in 59, dholes in 25, sloth bears in 48 and Hyena in 8 beats. The highest sign encounter rate was for sloth bears i.e. 0.38 signs/km, followed by leopards (0.15 signs/km), tigers (0.12 signs/ km), dhole (0.10 signs/km) and hyena (0.08 signs/km). Tiger occupancy was found to be 76% in the forest corridor. The data suggested the extensive use of this forest cor- ridor by tigers and other co-predators. Dung and pellet count of wild ungulates were encountered in 82 sampled beats, out which the Chital’s pellets were found in 38 beats, Sambar’s in 27, Nilgai’s in 19 and Barking deer’s in 17 beats. The Chaushinga seemed to be present only in two beats whereas very few dung signs of wild pig (only fi ve beats) could be identifi ed in the fi eld. vii Since the forest corridor is a multiple-use area, most beats showed direct or indirect hu- man presence as there are more than 440 villages located in and adjacent to it (<5km). Among all anthropogenic pressures, livestock grazing seemed the most extensive as it was reported in 72 beats during this survey. Besides livestock grazing, collection of fuel wood and minor forest produce occurs all along the corridor. Other than community dependence on forest resources, the Forest corporation and production divisions also extract timber from this forest on a regular basis (Mohgaon, Lamta and Barghat Forest corporation areas). In addition to community dependency and legal timber extraction by the government, several linear developmental projects such as broadening of roads and broad gauge conversion of railway lines passing through the corridor are posing greater threats to corridor connectivity. Mushrooming of tourist hotels and resorts adja- cent to both Kanha and Pench Tiger Reserves also hamper the movement of dispersing wildlife in the corridor. Increasing human and cattle population along the corridor has also resulted in escalated human-wildlife confl ict issues, which affect the socio-political will in stepping up wildlife conservation efforts at the landscape level. However, WWF- India is striving to engage with various stakeholders to showcase and scale up conserva- tion measures for the holistic conservation of tigers and their habitats. The present study identifi ed two important forest blocks, namely: a) Rukhad and b) Keolari-Kopijhola-Sonkhar, and four critical habitat linkages in the corridor which require immediate attention and management to ensure safe wildlife passage between Kanha and Pench Tiger Reserves. To secure and safeguard corridor connectivity in the long term, WWF-India recommends several measures such as: a) mproving the compensation mechanism to the local community for loss of livestock and agricultural crops; b) intensifying patrolling and protection measures especially during summer, and monitoring water holes to prevent poisoning; c) developing an effective livestock management strategy to reduce cattle numbers while improving milk economy; d) engaging the local community in sustainable forest-based livelihoods such as collection and marketing of minor forest produce, ecotourism and Joint Forest Management; e) introducing energy conservation measures to reduce dependency on fuel wood; and f) developing strategies and mechanisms to keep a check on new developmental projects coming up in this area. Keeping in mind the conservation signifi cance of the Kanha-Pench corridor landscape, the forest department, being a legal custodian of the forest, should attempt to develop an institutional platform to discuss conservation and development concerns and to ar- rive at a consensus among all the stakeholders in this important corridor.